Communication: The Bridge Between Confusion and Clarity

                     Your Ticket To Success 

Communication is one of the most important skills you acquire for a successful life. It's your ticket to success. Having good and strong communication skills allow people to get to know each other more accurately. They learn new things and they are able to express themselves (their feelings, thoughts ad interests)  in a free and clear way. I other words, Communication is the key to  a personal and a career successful life. 

Because I strongly believe that communication is a crucial skill that every student needs to master and learn effectively and that like all other skills in education and in life in general it needs to be modified from time to time. I designed the following classroom poster which is a "Bridge Action Plan"  to improve students' communication skills and ensure that they achieve success in their daily life and future career life.     

Here's the link to the classroom poster I designed about communication skills :  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Nju0HDtxNWm7T1N1vtiSFPNOsThudQ9i/view?usp=share_link  

Padlet :Where Your Voice Can Be Heard !

 

                             "Peach and Pit" 

One of the most interactive technological and  educational tools that teachers use in their teaching to ensure that students have a good , broad and interactive education is "Padlet".

It is an interactive educational tool that serves as a board where students can share everything they want or like such as videos article links images ... in a safe and common place place for their friends to see and discuss with each other. Through the use of " Padlet " app students can enjoy learning and have a fruitful educational journey.

As a teacher, I use " Padlet" with my students to give them a chance to share their thoughts and adventures with others and maybe express themselves so that their voices can be heard. And for them to enjoy learning and education so that they never feel bored to learn.

Here's a tutorial video I sent earlier to my students, where I taught them how to use " Padlet" app to make education m interactive and to be one of the great teachers in their domain.  

And, here is the link to "Peach and Pit " Padlet:              

 https://padlet.com/21830512/zuqo850ajunim7zu

Pit 

                           Peach

Introducing Games in Learning

                  Gamification... The Way to an Interactive Classroom

What is "Gamification" of learning?

It is an educational approach that seeks to motivate students by using video games design and game elements in the learning environment.

Games are useful in teaching because they engage students in their educational journey.

Recently, I've watched an interesting educational webinar that is titled as " How Can Teachers Prepare Games for Their Classrooms?" it discussed ways and suggested websites teachers can use to design interactive and interesting online games that engage students in the learning process. This webinar included plenty o games that teachers can use in their classrooms but I as a teacher I liked the following games The World Cup, Jeopardy Game, and The Escape Room   

In the " World Cup Game"  the students are divided into two groups each group chooses the team that he likes to cheer in the world cup as an example Brazil and Germany. Where the teacher should have designed a set of questions to ask for each group on an equal basis for example the teacher designed 6 questions there should be 3 questions for each team and the team that answers a wrong answer receives a red card whereas the team that answers a correct answer scores 1 point "GOALLLLL". The game continues until all the both teams are done with the questions and the team that scores higher is the winner of the game .

This game is a multiple choice game. I consider it useful because it tests the students' knowledge

about a certain concept and engages the students in education because it's mainly about a trendy theme in 2022.

In addition, there was the " Jeopardy Game". In this game, the teacher designs a table with several questions and categorizes them in different categories and she scores each question with a number of points. Then students choose the questions to answer which get harder as the students proceed in the game. The teacher divides the students into 2 groups that play against each other. The team that gets the highest score is said to win the game .  

This is a useful game because it also tests the students' knowledge about the topic that they learned and also because it creates a competitive atmosphere that engages students in learning and make it fun.

Furthermore, "Escape Room" was an interesting game, Where there are rooms students enter and they have to find and solve educational clues as much as they can and in the same time they can't escape or leave the room until they find ad solve all the clues in the room in a certain period of time. 

As a teacher, with my students I design online games using the website www.educandy.com. This website is very useful in designing and creating online educational games to use in classroom that engage students in learning 

    
   

A Love Story Like No Other

                                                               Me Before You

"You can find MAGIC wherever you look sit back ad relax all you need is a good book"

                             Dr. Suess

 Reading is one of my favorite hobbies I love to read a lot because it helps me strengthen my language skills , boosts my imagination. In addition I consider reading as a free therapy because whenever I grab a book and dive in it's pages I feel free , release all the stress, feel happy  and travel in time to the dream world where the novel takes place.

One of the favorite novels I've read is "Me Before You" which is New York bestseller it expresses true love in it's highest sense it's about a twenty-six-year-old Louisa Clark lives with her working-class family. Unambitious and with few qualifications, she feels constantly outshone by her younger sister, Treena, an outgoing single mother. Louisa, who helps support her family, loses her job at a local café when the café closes. She goes to the Job Center and, after several failed attempts, is offered a unique employment opportunity: help care for Will Traynor, a successful, wealthy, and once-active young man who has kuadreplegia as a result of a pedestrian-motorcycle accident two years earlier. Will's mother, Camilla, hires Louisa despite her lack of experience, believing Louisa can brighten his spirit. Louisa meets Nathan, who cares for Will's medical needs, and Will's father, Steven, a friendly upper-class businessman whose marriage to Camilla is strained.

Louisa and Will's relationship starts out rocky due to his bitterness and resentment over being disabled. Things worsen after Will's ex-girlfriend, Alicia, and best friend Rupert reveal that they are getting married. Under Louisa's care, Will gradually becomes more communicative and open-minded as they share experiences together. Louisa notices Will's scarred wrists and later overhears his mother and father discussing how he attempted suicide shortly after Camilla refused his request to end his life through Dignitas, a Swiss-based assisted suicide organization. Horrified by his attempt, Camilla promised to honor her son's wish, but only if he agreed to live six more months. Camilla intends to prove that, in time, he will believe his life's worth living.

Louisa conceals knowing about Will and Camilla's agreement. However, she tells Treena, and together they devise ways that will help convince Will to abandon his death wish. Over the next few weeks, Will loosens up and Louisa begins taking him on outings and the two grow closer.

Through their frequent talks, Louisa learns that Will has traveled extensively; his favorite place is a café in Paris. Noticing how limited his life is now and that he has few ambitions, Louisa tries to motivate Will to change.

Louisa continues seeing her longtime boyfriend of 7 years, Patrick, though they eventually break up due to her relationship with Will. Meanwhile, Louisa's father loses his job, causing more financial difficulties. Steven Traynor offers Mr. Clark a position. Louisa realizes that Will is trying to help her secure her freedom from her family. The two attend Alicia and Rupert's wedding where they dance and flirt. Will tells Louisa that she is the only reason he wakes in the morning.

Louisa convinces Will to go on a holiday with her, but before they can leave, Will contracts near-fatal pneumonia. Louisa cancels the plans for a whirlwind trip. Instead, she takes Will to the island of Mauritius. The night before returning home, Louisa tells Will that she loves him. Will says he wants to confide something, but she admits that she already knows about his plans with Dignitas. Will says their time together has been special, but he cannot bear to live in a wheelchair. He will be following through with his plans. Angry and hurt, Louisa storms off and does not speak to him for the remainder of the trip. When they return home, Will's parents are pleasantly surprised by his good physical condition. Louisa however resigns as his caretaker and they understand that Will intends to end his life.

Back at home,Louisa is mesirable, and her mother is outraged when Louisa tells them everything about Will. The media and journalists arrive at the house having been tipped off by Patrick and the family become isolated. Treena then finds a message from Camilla Traynor requesting Louisa to come to Switerland. Louisa accepts despite her mother forbidding it and flies out to see Will. Once reunited again at the clinic they agree that the pastsix months have been the best in their lives. He dies shortly after in the clinic and he left Louisa a considerable inheritance, meant to continue her education and fully experience life. The nnovel ends with Louisa at a cafe in Paris reading Will's last words to her in aletter that tell her to "live well".

The New Trend: Technology in Education With it's UnWelcomed Guests !

 Although online learning facilitated students education and provided them with plenty of joyful experiences to practice what they learned. But indeed students face lots of problems while learning online. These problems are most likely to be:

Distractions Everywhere: 

Sometimes students might sit in a noisy environment which will create an unsuitable atmosphere for their learning and ofcourse this will students to feel distracted and they will loose their attention span.

Staying Motivated:

Online lectures must be fun. Students should enjoy their educational journey.They should be as busy as bees spending their time doing interesting activities.

Boring online lectures cause students to loose their attention and easily leave the online class meeting.

Bad Internet Connection:

It is one of the most important factors that contribute to having a successful online class. Because giving an online class with a terrible wifi connection will affect negatively the flow of the ideas in a lesson and will cause students to cut their connected strand of ideas and thoughts which will lead them to loose their attention span and feel bored so that they will not continue to attend the full lecture.

Assessment ... For More Than Grading!

 Assessment is a very important factor in students' education. It is not only for giving students grades and ranks based on their learning progress in class. Assessment is crucial for students' learning because it helps teachers know their students' abilities and potentials.

Besides, assessment allows teachers to monitor the students' learning and educational progress so they can deal with each student based on his level.

Moreover,assessment helps teachers modify their teaching methods to suit the students needs and to know their levels with respect to the learning target.

While assessing students' learning progress teachers are free to use different assessment tools. But I as fresh in-service teacher I like to use Google Form, Polleverywhere, Mentimeter and Kahoot for their accessibility and flexibility.

 

The Virtual vs.The Real Classroom

 Technology made education much easier to both students and teachers. It allowed them to have easy access to information from different sites on the internet. It allowed them to explore new subjects, it deepened their understanding of difficult concepts. 

Besides, Technology accelerated students' learning and provided them with alot of fun  opportunities to practice what they learned. Through the use of technology in classrooms Education,became much easier to students because they gained all the necessary technical skills for their future occupations.

Although, technology had positively affected students' learning by facilitating it, I as a student prefer to learn in a engaging classroom where there is interaction between the students and their teacher. Students are allowed to freely express their feelings and share their thoughts with their peers.

From a teacher's perspective, I prefer real classroom to virtual one because real education happens in a real classroom and it's much better than online classes and because the teacher is the heart of the educational system, she plays a crucial rule educating students and building their successful future.

Furthermore, I believe that virtual teaching will never replace the love, the laughs, the learning the smiles on the students' faces, the "aha" moments that happen in a real classroom.